BALTCOST has been use to, in scientific papers, identify cost-effective measures for reductions of N and P loads for seven regions in the Baltic of the Baltic Sea Action Plan.

The model results also show the distribution of abatement measures and the distribution of costs between countries for obtaining the reduction targets to the Baltic Sea sea regions.

Using high resolution bio-physical data

A major novelty of BALTCOST is its utilization of bio-physical data at spatial resolutions down to 10*10 km2 grid cell scale (18377 grid cells across the complete Baltic drainage basin).

Using data these bio-physical data as well as economic data on prices the model incorporates abatement costs and effect functions, nutrient retentions and abatement capacity constraints for 6 different N and/or P abatement measures in each of 22 main Baltic drainage basins (each of which comprise between 1 and 16 smaller sub catchments, of which there are 117 in total).

Combining abatement measures

The six abatement measures modeled in BALTCOST are:

Reductions in fertilizer applications to arable crops (N abatement)

Catch crops under spring-sown cereals (N abatement)

Reductions in numbers of pig (N & P abatement)

Reductions in numbers of cattle (N & P abatement)

Restoring wetlands on agricultural soils (N & P abatement)

Improving wastewater treatment (N & P abatement)

Once a cost-effective distribution of abatement measures at drainage basin resolution has been obtained, the underlying 10*10 km2 resolution bio-physical data makes it possible to estimate the distribution of abatement measures within drainage basins.

The high resolution also provides an opportunity to investigate the relevance of high spatial resolution retention estimation in developing trans-national policies for water quality management.